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Minervas Den
Sitemap --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- ' Minervas Den level maps of Minervas Den DLC ' --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- . . . . . . . . . . . . ' Minerva's Den is also the generic name for the BioShock 2 DLC Game' It is also the name if the 1st map level of that DLC * See also Minervas_Den_Operations (2nd DLC map level) * See also Minervas_Den_The_Thinker (3nd DLC maplevel) AKA Rapture Central Computing ---- ---- "Bioshit Alley" - Rapture's High Tech Center : Minervas_Den : * Air Tight Archives (Pneumo System development and distribution) * Rapture Telephone and Telegraph (Automated Telephone) * McClendon Robotics (Automations and labor saving devices, and 'Gold Turd' fad gizmos later Bio-electronic revolution stuff) Early (Pre-ADAM) Rapture 'Tech' businesses (much being paying utilities for the city from the start) - Operations : * Rapture Central Computing (early mainframes for business/accounting/research computations) * Automated Farming Project (labor saving for expanded agriculture) * Cryogenics Lab (you didn't think all those big machines were for 'cooling' computers when the water outside is near freezing temps) Expanded Tech research for "real time" computer system use and other things - The Thinker : * Center For Advanced Computation (super computer) * The Thinker Research Computer Big money required in establishing this later add-on project (partially funded by genetic research) Sorry, No 'Remote Control' of all of Rapture (that's just a wholly impractical assumption). Limited use for improving scheduling/regulating/monitoring (things previously done manually). Super-Computer for research and Porter/Wahl R&D (ADAM tech Bio-Electronics enabled Computers) The whole Porter Bat Cave thing was a bit much. ---- MAP DIAGRAMS (click to enlarge): This map is part of the Minervas Den Cluster (at the South Eastern Corner of Rapture near Fontaine Futuristics) which includes high tech businesses : Rapture Central Computing, Air-Tite Archives, and McClendon Robotics (Rapture Telephone and Telegraph and Atlantic Express also have main facilities there). Map Orientation based on what - arbitrary ? I used the likely position of the Atlantic Express Station (hinted by a door sign - off that Viaduct, inside from the flooded area you go thru first thing in the level). An East-West AE track orientation matches my City Metro map (Up = North - a convention they don't stick with for some reason). The Viaduct walkway is shown as it was before that section was blown up by Wahl. It now leads on one end to the AE Station, and another branch extends towards buildings you see in the distance. These Viaducts are long enough that they might have had automated 'robotic' golfcarts/people movers (early vehicles following wires embedded in the walkway) to save on walking by the Minervas Den customers. Other Viaducts lead to other nearby buildings. In-game (MMORPG), this Viaduct would still have been blown up, and if important, might be a 'Player' project for rebuilding (no doubt there also are additional alternate paths to the buildings off in that direction). - Corrected : In-game the Elevator down to Operations becomes 3 shafts when you arrive there. So on this first map level the other two elevators shafts have been added to match it, to handle the typical working/customer/visitor traffic between different departments of the Minervas Den complex - a primary conduit connecting to more space than seen in-game (additional floors). Ive added a typical stairwell in conjunction with those 3 Main Elevators (not visible in the Minervas Den:Operations maps). - Inconsistency Problem - a rather "Tall Building" facade seen from the outside seafloor view which overlaps the Air-tite archives section, which has ceiling windows in several places only a few floors up (when the big building above is seen externally to have many more floors). There are also window views into open water, when there should be buildings visible (ie - New Accounts). This would have to be rearranged for the MMORPG to make the views cohesive with the actual buildings (those building would be accessible and probably would be cut down a bit from their impressive, but incorrect size of the game caricature views). - Of course, as always, these maps leave out the many utility systems, access ways, pipes, conduits, vents and ducts, hatches, and innumerable nooks and crannies. The MMORPG would include all of them and would be a source for endless investigation and discovery. Visible Pipes and conduits frequently go through walls (some walls of zero thickness) with nothing showing on the other side. Things like that would be fixed up to more realistically represent actual systemry (which there would be tons of in such a place), instead of merely level 'dress up'. --- There is an Atlantic Express sign ("Exit ->") near the main entryway from the Ocean, which looks to have connected via the remains of a Viaduct (connected to the part that was blown up, now blocked) to the AE. I've added the Train Station over in that southernmost section of the building cluster. The triple-floored Station has elevators/stairs as the way to get to its opposite-side's 2nd track (the separate platform on that side not visible on the level map). A Viaduct connection to the Station leads off to additional buildings to the East. There are the big water tanks underneath the AE Station used in a mechanism to quickly drain the RR Station Airlock (instead of pumping, which can be slower, or requiring overlarge (expensive) pumps). Minimizing delay of train arrival/departure transition is important (also is a reason why the Bathysphere system as originally shown is so impractical). Minervas Den had a different station type than the majority of Rapture's Train Airlock systems, in that it uses a single Airlock Chamber for each track (versus two, one at either end). These Airlocks the passengers enter and exit. The airlock chamber is completely filled/emptied with water while at Rapture internal pressure, minimizing the pressure the pumps must work against, but requiring large displacement tanks equivalent to the volume of the Airlock's chamber. Other Station mechanisms were designed to move as little water as possible during the airlocks pressure transition (why they submerge on a downslope inside the airlock). One advantage of this train airlock type is that 'through' trains don't have to stop (and be delayed). Trains can go straight through the Airlock without stopping (airlock doors on both ends open and chamber in a flooded state), eliminating bypass tracks other Stations used for longer and'through'/Express trains. Another advantage is that the entire Station is much shorter than the design using airlocks at either end. This Station is 200 feet long, when the other type Mk2 stations are almost 500 feet long (the majority being the two extended Airlocks). An extra set of emergency pressure doors at the ends are added for safety redundancy, and the passengers embark/disembark thru loading gates/platforms which are pulled back hydraulically to allow the Train to move. Computer control was used to position the Train Cars exactly to match up to the passenger gates (or so it would be claimed, as that can be done reliably by fairly simple circuitry just as well). This Station's cramped loading space did give passengers the impression of being crammed into a Torpedo tube, and the restricted volume also made doing repairs/maintenance somewhat more difficult. No, the trains AREN'T launched like torpedoes.... --- Notice that the structure marked as "Tall Building" (seen from several sides in the external views adjacent to the first airlock entrance), when compared to the other interior floor plans, is not really that large (particularly the interior space). These were probably offices (with nice window views). I show it conveniently tieing-in to the Atlantic Express Train station walkways (that explodey'd wrecked Viaduct -- seriously you'd think Wahl would come up with a less wasteful way to try to stop Sigma). - There would be a (standard) 'Sewer' level below level 0 (it is not shown, but see the Olympus Heights maps for similar structures) which would head off towards Hephaestus via other buildings in that direction. The usual multiple (redundant) utility lines (heat/electricity/air/water) would be contained within it. Conduits heading in other directions would connect into other points of Rapture's Utility grid. A bulk of the thousands of converging Communications Data lines come through these utility conduits. Note that on the lower floors (where the concrete Foundation and the Drainage Sumps are), the indicated doors mostly are NOT the fancy/complicated Securis automatic doors, but more the type of swing pressure doors that submarines have, which are usually left closed/sealed to prevent any lower level leaks from spreading. Those areas are broken up into 'cells' protected by water-tight/pressure-tight doors to minimize spread of leaks until maintenance/repair can be done. For the MMORPG, such spaces allow much lurking/exploring and alternate path possibilities. - That Water filled Hall "AE System Display Area" (with high ceiling and with computer stuff lining the walls and strewn on the floor) once was an Atlantic Express company public exhibition showing off its 'advanced' computerized train dispatching system. It was accessed by passage thru the concourse leading to the AE Station. --- Modifications : Again, I did a great deal of simplifying/consolidating of building corners and making different floors share the same continuous primary walls. It makes for a more monolithic structure (built as simple /solid big blocks of concrete) -- better suited to holding out the great water pressure at 600+ feet down. It also makes for more 'hidden' spaces inside walls, for all the utilities and other workings - like communications wires for all the computers (and places for unsavory things to hide). So there have been added lots of level interconnects/cable conduits/utility spaces to the floorplans. AS usual, there are alot of un-seen/un-indicated internal spaces in the buildings, false ceilings, inside walls, embedded in the thick layered floors . Added the usual infrastructure - Sump Pump Station, Building Foundations, Power Substation, Jet Postal Sub Station, numerous Maintenance Airlocks, Various Utility spaces, Restrooms, and AE Station (and its associated facilities). A main Bathysphere and Sub Dock, Trolley Station, 'Street' system connection, and Utility Aqueduct are nearby off-map. - A large number of data cables converge on this complex. Phone lines as well as dedicated data lines spread out in a web across Rapture. Raptures's Automatic Doors are not really controlled by The Thinker, but many other things were monitored, and businesses remotely used Computers located in Minervas Den. RT&T - Rapture Telephone and Telegraph system facility is located in the north 'Tower' building, with many the data/phone lines coming in from across Rapture for switching. Of those, the data lines then descend to the Operations level. - In Air-Tite we have some more of the usual level map defects -- looking out a sea window and missing is a directly opposite building wall of an existing inside area - another part of that building/level (you see an open Skybox view only, with distant tall buildings - a clone from a BS2 skybox). With the MMORPG - ALL window views will be real actual terrain and not faked/inconsistent mockups (eliminating the issue). A similar window from the Air-Tite "VIP Lounge" shows Ocean/CityScape when it actually looks straight into the side of "The Tall Building". That was a hard one to fix without making another 'Aquarium' or False Window. So I've made it into a "3-D" Projection showing an outside view from another location (one without a building in the way). No doubt the 3D rig could also be used for fancy advertisements (and various gimmicks in line with the 'high-tech' theme). Renting its use out to other businesses might be an idea, since the 'Safety Deposit Box' business pretty much has limited company growth. Perhaps if Home Video Players became developed, the 'Archives could have become Raptures biggest Video Rental Business (with the auto-delivery aspect already figured out...) - SeaSlugs - The ones in jars aren't just pets... A source of ADAM chemicals for Bio-electronics production. Several good sized SeaSlug Tanks/Habitats are now present in Minervas Den, as the ADAM they produce is essential to the new Bio-Electronic technology, so the care and feeding of SeaSlugs was an important part of the business. The ones I've designated on these maps originally look like they were open onto the Ocean, but are now blocked/enclosed (mesh/netting) in a way that prevents the 'tame' SeaSlugs from escaping, and predators from getting in, but keeps the Slugs Ocean conditions in a natural state. McClendon probably would have developed a Robotic SeaSlug feeding mechanism which he would have used for his own stocks of that useful organism, and sold them to other companies - like Fontaine Futuristics who maintained many hundreds(thousands?) of SeaSlugs. - The whole area where the Boardroom is, is actually the top floor of a multistory building, which descends down to the level of Operations (look up through the ceiling window down there in the Operations Lobby). It is a bit strange that the elevator that you take down doesn't extend up to that important (Boardroom) floor. I would have had to rearrange/change too many things on that level to make the elevators access that floor (existing elevators would emerge in middle of the Boardroom). That raises the question about what significant modifications are allowed on in-game (known) locations for the MMORPG (and Minervas Den in my scenario is a place that was an early part of New Rapture and a place you can visit). The Top floor would still have more above it, with utility spaces and the thick structural ceiling and no doubt some Art Deco type tower decoration extending it a bit higher. --- Additions : I added that Viaduct T-intersection that leads now to other nearby buildings westward. Why else have a Viaduct go OUT of one part of the same set of buildings just to go back IN to it again (near the Train Station), rather than an internal walkway ? For the view ?? Well the view is still there, but the extended building cluster is now better/logically connected, allowing access to the local transportation hub over there, and beyond. - This area's Bathysphere Station (Austen Metro System) in the "Another Tall Building" (south-west corner) upper level (not shown on map), which would allow its cables to clear alot of the clutter nearer the seabed. It is well situated to tie-in to the other transportation and the entrance to RCC. SO it is not shown on the level map (being many stories higher), but would have similar mechanisms/facilities to the other Bathysphere Cable Hubs seen on other maps. That Station connects 2 directions - North West (to connect to Arcadia) and South West (connected to Fontaine Futuristics) according to my Rapture Transportation Map. The consolidated Bathysphere system was a later addition to the City, so having it appended onto a nearby building is logical, instead of making massive changes into a building complex not originally planned to have it. A 'Street' Viaduct with Trolleys apparently didn't connect directly to Minervas Den either, but did reach the building cluster indicated immediately to the South West (again not shown on map, but examples of a typical layout can be seen on other maps). The older Mk1 AE Train Tracks are also below there in a track tunnel (seen on the Operations Map Level), so it seems that "Another Tall Building" served as a 'Transit Hub' for the general area, and likely included typical shops and restaurants. Since the New Mk2 AE Tracks go right through the middle of the building, its 'tallness' may have been an expansion/retrofit, where previously a more squat building sat. - Added - a Sea Robotic Testing Area on the Roof of McClendon Robotics. It is likely that a significant amount of the original automated/remote control equipment used in the Construction of Rapture were a collaboration between McClendon and Ryan Industries. McClendon had probably got his start making systems for the US Government during WW2. Automated Maintenance machinery would be a continuing business. - Added - a Kelp Farm (near Porter's office). All that computer paper has to come from somewhere (even with recycling, the fibers eventually wear out). Also, it is likely to be the TP source for Wahl's techie sub-community (and possibly an important export in post-Ryan Rapture). Machinery and Artificial lighting (sun flood lamps) is used to grow the variety of kelp (there's no light from the surface). Likely some clever McClendon-style automation was made use of for the 'farm'. Various organic 'sewage' waste could serve as fertilizer to assist growth. Edible Kelp may also have been cultivated. - I've added a Jet Postal Pneumo Sub Station (Near the Train Station). There are the kiosks throughout the complex, and they might have their own 'closed' system which had been used as a testing system when McClendon created the control logic for Rapture's Jet Postal before 1956 (several years in development, ontop of time to install the City Wide system). It is this sub-station that interfaces with the Rapture-Wide Pneumo system for this building complex. - Added the enlarged (what was original was pathetically small) Air-Tite archives capacity with a canister auto-storage system (stacked into the space below a higher floor's building footprint). Such an automated system allowed recalling the storage capsules/canisters faster that the older manual systems (for a Convenience Fee of course). Storage racks could mechanically cycle to move the capsule to the pneumatic sending unit, and likewise incoming capsules would go back onto the racks. The existing in-game level showed a system that would take a great deal of manual operations, which is diametrically opposed to this complex being the 'High Technology Center' of Rapture. (It would be logical) With the building of the Jet Postal system, customers in Rapture could have their small or medium sized Air-Tite storage capsules sent to them at any Jet Postal sub-station or Pneumo Kiosk in the City. A New(er) Air-Tite canister model was created matching the size/shape the Pneumo system used. - Near the Air-Tite Customer Lounge, I've added a number of cubicles/Private Booths for Customers (like the booths they have at banks for customer's Safety Deposit Boxes). The Lounge itself is setup for customers, but the machinery present looks wrong and should have been more streamlined - made more like a vending machine interaction - a place where the customers ordered up their Air-Tite Canisters, retrieved them and later dropped them off (directly into the system). - Added a Tower company sign ontop of Air-Tite Archives which would be along the lines of the advertisement posters. The inside of the structure is used for a fire suppression system (water tanks/pumps) which would be a good thing to have for protection of the 'archives'. A giant concrete octopus may have been planned at one time, by those plans were apparently scrapped. A large billboard type sign was also placed above McClendon Robotics' roof. No doubt there would be some spectacular light show effects employed on it. With the potential force of ocean currents (particularly during North Atlantic storms) the sign has sturdy reinforced concrete construction. --- Observations : Rapture Central Computing may have got its big start from a sub-contract for an Atlantic Express control system used to coordinate train traffic, and for organizing their freight shipping business. Billings/inventory and other business data processing could have been planned to use the early computer systems to cut down labor(costs). The whole AE company system was being built from scratch starting in 1946, and didn't have any 'backward compatibility' problems with old processes. Things developed for a project of that size could then be applied to other customers/industries who also were largely 'starting from scratch' in Rapture. Parallel projects like Rapture's phone system would likewise reflect the latest technologies (pushed further again because it could ALL be new). Auto-routing for the Pneumo would be another logical project. - The McClendon facilities we visit are largely Showrooms and Development Departments. Primary manufacturing of the consumer products was farmed out to various/numerous small companies, and a McClendon factory/distribution facility elsewhere. - One general observation for ALL the Bioshock game levels (and their maps) : An awful lot of the buildings (we actually play through) are embedded in the sea floor, and are not much like the soaring architecture of distant buildings seen in the Skybox Cityscape views out the windows. We pretty much are inside squat sprawling structures (made even MORE squat when they are frequently half submerged into the seabed). The tall buildings see in the local area are smaller-scaled caricatures used to give the impression of distance (even when they are immediately sitting ontop of normally-scaled buildings closer to us). They are quite tall, can be seen above the Train Station, the "Tall" and "Another Tall" buildings (seen on my map), and even one right above the nearest part of Minervas Den. For the MMORPG, they would be made with fewer floors (the Station has elevators which could ascend upto those additional floors - possibly with AE RR offices (which being one of the largest industries in Rapture would warrant). Obviously there was alot more to this level's cluster of buildings than we get to see inside. - "The Thinker can do 1,000,000 operations per second" (heard on an announcement advertisement). AI operations are not the same thing as (IPS) instructions per second, or even Floating-point Operations per second (FLOPS). Logical Inferences per Second is a different measure which can take much more processing work per 'operation' than those other basic computer metrics. - Drunk, McClendon whines (audio diary) about a bad contract to make Robotic Little Sisters, which then fails because the Big Daddies just walk away from them. But he doesn't seem to have considered arming the Robotic Little Sisters (or having a Fly-bot with them), or maybe even constructing Robotic Big Daddies to protect them. (Stranger would be Giant 'Robot Little Sisters' capable of taking care of themselves...) The Devs could have at least shown some blueprints of such ideas and some partially constructed parts (BIG feet and hands and heads, and another Accu-Vox diaries explaining it all). Heh, shades of the Motorized Patriot (with tank treads this time) and Handyman from that other game. Instead they make McClendon into a 'tragic' idiot, who you wonder how he could ever (as presented) have build such a business in the first place and make such basic mistakes (Starting an expensive product line BEFORE you have got the product working is a VERY lame storyline.). - It appears that in many window views, rocks and sealife immediately outside the windows were left decoratively visible when they very easily could have been cleared/scraped away (Raptures construction required moving massive amounts of seabed rock efficiently, so it wouldn't have been difficult...). Perhaps views of the dramatic cityscape was just too common a sight (and the Devs simply reused the already repetitive skybox images). - The Air-tite Archives canisters (various sizes) look similar and about the size of the Jet Postal canisters/capsules I elsewhere proposed would actually be used by that Pneumo mail system. Could you imagine letters/boxes/garbage dumped into the 'Pneumo' Kiosk inlets getting wedged/clogged up in the tubes everywhere, OR rattled about til they disintegrated, leaving gummy messes, OR the amount/speed of air needed to move objects of varying aerodynamic qualities over distances of kilometers ??? That is why real 'Pneumo' systems used canister/capsules which closely fit the tube cross-section, with flexible seals to allow the airflow to move them efficiently. You stick your mail INTO a canister inside the Kiosk and it is whisked away. The ridiculously tight tube curves they have on many of the in-game pneumo machinery they created to represent the Air-Tite pneumatic system shows they did not really even know (or care) how a real Pneumo system works. NRS (- Not Rocket Science). - Note that 'secret passages' thru the air vents (the square vent covers you can break and get passage through to access spaces usually blocked by other obstacles) are indicated for the ones existing in the game. There would be many others (full systems of vents in fact) on the full-detailed MMORPG maps, as well as various access to other utility systems within the walls. - Gravity Well plasmid needed to pull Resistors to disable a Magna-Locked door thru a window -- proof that Telekinesis is NOT real (as it appears) and so is some psi/physical mechanism -- which works within existing physics (even if the Psi stuff is rather tenuous -- ie- electromagnetic brain jamming). Telekinesis SHOULD work through glass windows, but doesn't in the game. Instead Telekinesis might be Spidey silk goop (sprayed from your hand) exploding and pulling things from a distance (as it shrank) or YOU running over (while the targets were stunned) and grabbing and running back without noticing - fooling yourself and others watching (the jamming aspect). Could it instead be some kind of ridiculously strong Magnetism - ala physics-defying Fantasy-in-Infinite ?? Except in BioShock, you can pull NON-magnetic things using it. Also, gravity goes thru glass windows, the last I checked. (Elsewhere in my postings every other Plasmid/Tonic is justified with some science-fictioney real physics - though some of them ARE still a bit of a reach.....) - Truely ridiculous --- that mag-locked 'Security Door' with the Magnetic Lock, AND there is this HUGE open slot right ABOVE it (which you throw the Gravity Well thingee thru. I guess ladders were never invented in Rapture and no one remembered to bring any when they immigrated. Another one of those not-too-well thought out little detail bits. Now maybe, if they had had some tiny little vent which it took you 10 tries to toss a Gravity-Well blob thru... But no, there's a opening an army of Spider Splicers could have stormed Omaha Beach thru.... Does it seem that DLC design is usually quickly done on the backs of Denny's napkins ??? - To do the DLC they added even more 'tech' weapon stuff getting a bit further away from the 50s theme and emergency kludged-together mechanisms. Much of the computer stuff is old enough looking, but some of the weapons are well past anything we can even do today. Well, that's what you get when game companies decide they have to go for special effects in a cheap way, instead of using a bit more thought to stick to the original genre/theme for their expansions. - Some of the locations they chose to put some of their generic 'computer' equipment were not the greatest - like in a pump room that is likely to have water splash around when things go wrong, etc... You don't need computer control for something like that anyway, and there are these things called 'wires' which you can run down the hall or to adjacent rooms to connect devices to computer controls kept in a safe location. Just all that water about the place is a VERY bad idea. Showing equipment still on in this environment was a ludicrous departure from reality (They are all DEAD Jim!! They were all Electrocuted!!!) It would have been interesting to have MANY puddle/pools to be a game hazard because they were still electrically charged. - Bizarre Audio Diary (used as a message in this case) from Ryan to Porter talking about an 'expensive' bronze statue copy - a duplicate of Rodin's The Thinker ?? AS IF anyone would be allowed to mold that statue (implied in use of term "duplicated"), and AS IF Porter had the money (on the Surface) to be able to do that, OR contacts to do so on up there. If this was AFTER the 1952 Surface cutoff, and it (that statue) was obviously smuggled into Rapture, wouldn't it be impounded (for obvious reasons) as contraband? Sounds like a lame 'setup' plot scrap for the 'denunciation' and Porter winding-up in Persephone and later an Alpha ...). When they are trying to milk the game brand via DLC they can get pretty sloppy. - The level designer did make good use of animated textures for the various blinking/chase-lights on the various signs. It made the scenery a bit less static and having the bright lights show through the gloomy darkness was eerie. The MMORPG could do with some of that, even reworking the old original signs (it is something you don't have to be a 3D editing genius to do, and the Toolset could help alot to facilitate --- same for various lighted machinery controls). - Minervas Den Central Computing was not just one big computer. It was multiple computers doing different tasks. Some centrally controlled/monitored City Functions, others did accounting and billing, others were used for research and engineering computations. Many computer/automation systems would be customized and specifically built for various dedicated tasks. Older systems which were employed previously to The Thinker being built would still exist (The Thinker coming later because it needed the ADAM-based Bio-Electronics to work). There were many other computers elsewhere in the City, when it was more convenient to have them be located where needed. Many did local control tasks which would be coordinated from the central location (like what The THINKER did). A Communication Network allowed remote access to the computers in Central Computing from anywhere in Rapture (an interesting idea to employ in the MMORPG).. - The 'Computer' equipment visible when you first enter enter Minervas Den (the flooded area at the start of the level, entered through the breached walls) - I surmise these were used by the Atlantic Express to operate their Train automation, to control scheduling on the Atlantic Express (a Station of which is close by). There are several nearby rooms with banks of circuitry, masses of still operating computer mechanisms, and large data cables which would connect into the whole Atlantic Express system. The Thinker would be connected into these systems to make decisions to optimize train traffic, and these secondary computers would do the actual monitoring and control, as well as feed data to manual Centralized Traffic Control (CTC) used to coordinate the railroad. The Rapture Transit (Metro) Trolley system would have a similar system (Transit systems always have load level traffic problems, which if solved can allow better use of available resources and lower expenses). Many of the transportation data communication lines followed the Train system, using its structure to bridge terrain, and to facilitate its maintenance. The network would radiate out to communicate with the entire AE transport system. - "Rapture depends on The Thinker every day! Dispatching trains to commuters, making assembly lines more efficient, and keeping the air fresh!" - Advertisement All these are Monitoring and Coordinating tasks. It is very useful to identify problematic situations early and alert maintenance for preventive measures. Regulating Rapture's environment would be a continuous job assisted by automatic systems (again to catch problems BEFORE they got serious). Every building in Rapture had a basement, and water sensors to catch excessive seepage or leaks would be monitored and repair crews (including Big Daddies) alerted. - Above the added Atlantic Express Station, there is a tall building indicated (seen from the outside views). That could be offices for the AE, which had been one of the largest industries/employers in Rapture. Many businesses would locate where transportation was convenient for their customers and employees, so some would no doubt be located at this location. - Lots and lots of boxes of Electronic Vacuum tubes for the computers : There were a number of older-style (vacuum tube) computers, which did not warrant being replaced with newer technology. They were paid for, and if they continued to do what was needed, then they would be kept in operation. Some real-world improvements could be (Rapture) made on the tube design to prevent them from burning out as fast as on the earlier tube-based computers. - You see the equivalent of partitioned work cubicles for a number of the computer staff. You also see way-too-many keypunch machines. Many Programmers (in the real world) wrote out code on paper coding pads and THEN have a 'pool' of keypunch operators efficiently convert the text work into punchcards. The devs overused those machines as if they were computer terminals. - Advertisement Sign -- "Nevr-Wet Waterproofing - Even Works on Electrics!" -- the whole of Minervas Den must've got a treatment with that stuff .... Water amongst computer circuitry is very VERY bad. - We see (paper) punched tape (and machines that punch it) but the most common use for that was on a Teletype (keyboard+printer, I/O device), which we don't seem to have ONE present anywhere. Teletype machines would be highly useful as terminals for programming and program running (as they could be interactive - versus punchcards being 'batch run' in their use). Rapture HAD moved past the Punchcard Age, after all. - There is a pool in the reception area (where the animatronic Receptionist is behind a desk) which is actually a window down into a room below containing data cables and circuitry (similar to other 'computer' rooms seen). Those should be data cables coming in from all parts of Rapture, including for the Atlantic Express Train system. - Wasn't it amazing that every time we had an alarm system to hack on the other side of a locked door there was a convenient blasted-through hole in a wall, thru which to fire the Hack Darts ? And a conveniently located nearby Hack Dart dispenser ... (wouldn't it have been better gameplay for the Player to have to go look for one (or more) Hack Darts somewhere else, or buy them from a vending machine - instead of just handing it to them like that???) Many of the areas BEHIND the 'locked' doors have Splicers wandering about, and are not exactly 'security' sections with anything that appears to actually need to be locked away. - Many floor shifts/steps/offsets on these game levels (and on many of the other game's maps) don't really make alot of sense, and they actually would impair the activities of people and employees. Example - Air-Tite the Canister Retrieval room is up a set of stairs (in and up then back down again within) when the canisters need to be transferred to customers out in the lobby. There are carts actually in the retrieval room which cannot be rolled in/out to carry canisters to the employees dealing with customers. Its pretty much a case of level designers adding needless/illogical detail to complicate/spiff-up/decorate the game's terrain. Too many locations in the games look just glombed-together by the level designers, instead of being well-considered and purposefully designed/built as normally happens in the real world. --- Subversives_In_the_Archives : Ryan Security Man : "Hey, I'm just doing my job, and these pencil-necks ain't conductin' themselves in a way that'll make it go easy for 'em. Mr. Ryan needs to keep an eye on what certain subversives got circulatin' in the Archives, that's just the way it is. These Pinkos think the bandits are just gonna play nice, send their plans to the Central Council with a bow on top? When it comes to Mr. Ryan, you're either with 'im or you ain't. Get used to it." It is not made clear when this was recorded, or who the 'subversives' (criminals) might be. It would not sound so 'wrong', if they are gathering evidence/intelligence on people who are known Atlas supporters, or even active rebels employed by Atlas to murder citizens and who have been destroying things in Rapture. Known associates of Fontaine's or Atlas - both because of criminal activities DO warrant searches by City Authorities. But since they (game writers) omit such detail in these games (intentionally ??) it all sounds so much more menacingly police-statish and tyranical. Retrieving info about what further crimes the perps might be planning, places they are hiding, who they might associate with, or even seizing caches of weapons/Plasmids/stolen loot, kept 'safe' in the Air-tite archives, would be fairly logical actions. --- If you drag the bodies of Splicers (or throw them with Telekinesis) past deployed Trap Rivets, the rivets don't trigger (neither do they trigger on you or your LS or Flybots or Neutral BD - convenient, no?). That takes some mighty fancy (but can't be t TOO expensive) expendable 'Friend or Foe' electronics/sensors (more McClendon high tech work done for Sinclair ?) Less and less reason for McClendon's demise being about the failed Robotic Little Sister project (having all his other successful businesses still). The MMORPG would probably have more such 'munitions' with simpler 'dumb' triggers, since tech production in Rapture seems to have greatly declined. That means YOU will have to avoid them, as will your 'Friendlies' (more AI for the NPCs). - These building seriously need better lighting. Windows into the murky depths don't give much light. OK, many such lights probably no longer would be working in many places, but they/their fixtures would still be up there. Ceiling fluorescent light panels, like you find in modern office buildings, would be likely in much of the worskspaces of this building complex. Some areas would still be brightly lit (and so differ from areas with the lights largely out.) --- --- Oddities : The Clock Window in the Boardroom has markers (which appear to be associated with gears) 'M' 'H' 'S' which are likely for Minutes-Hours-Seconds. There is also a minor strangeness of the door to the left of the clock going down to a maintenance/machinery room below. It is not a typical thing to have through a Boardroom (more logical would have been a private 'executive' elevator in place of it). That downstairs maintenance area is also strange in that it has alot of wood in its construction. - That first Airlock you enter in thru from the Ocean: Why would it have the fancy concrete stairway leading to it ? Outside, it is rather too cluttered to be some 'landing zone' for submarine equipment , or some kind of maintenance yard (people HAVE to be 'suited-up' to enter via that airlock). Ordinary employees or customers would NOT be entering this way (there were the Viaducts, Train Station, Bathysphere Docks for that). Seems a little too overdone for mere maintenance access. It is really just an 'illogical but pretty Maze' many games have to have you (the Player) walk back and forth through the same scenery. - The Atlantic Express Computers originally were of the old vacuum tube type technology (that wreckage we climb through in our entrance from the Ocean) and were used for Train dispatching (more as an assistance to a Central Control operator), and for business billings, inventory control and other mundane uses (still advanced systemry for the early 50s). Later post-ADAM developments (Bio-Electronics) allowed great improvements in automatic dispatching, just in time for the AE's Passenger service bankruptcy, but use was continued by the remaining Freight Service done by the reorganized company (AE FREIGHT). - Those blown out walls we climb in through (from the initial ocean walk) are somewhat unusual, and with the Building walls being built like German Fortress Europe Fortifications, it is rather unlikely without a whole different damage pattern. (You can see the rebar in the concrete - which begs the question of what exactly did that damage...) SO I've substituted details to indicate instead they had been Windows, which would be much easier to damage as seen. Why they were blown out like that isn't answered, but I'm sure some plausible story could be created for this detail in the MMORPG (A Sophia Lamb attack upon the facility with the resulting 'Family' Splicers being crispified by Ion-Laser wielding Security Bots and Alphas). - So many Minervas Den Splicers carrying 'Laser Cells' ( ? gas/chemical charges for the chemical reaction which causes the 'lasing' effect ?) Why? (Why not ?) BD and Fly-bots use these to charge weapons, but none of the Splicers carry those Laser weapons. Maybe they use them as a currency of some kind. The Fiery Brutes carry 'Thermal' Cells which might make sense as some kind of material 'fuel' for their Plasmid/Tonic. Computer tubes DON'T seem to be being used for 'currency', as they are left strewn about everywhere. - The Ion Laser doesn't exactly do what a real laser does (intense beam of light that sets a small point it is aim at on fire or even makes it explode). It is actually alot like a gun because you have to cycle the bursts to let some of the vapor/smoke clear, else the laser beam doesn't contact the target properly if fired continually. Minervas Den Lasers - since lasers were invented around 1960 (in the 'cut off' Real World). The developments likely for the laser weapons (a portable/high-end/high-power/advanced technology) would be Post-Ryan and have little funding (only limited resources from inside Minerva's Den, and unlikely any much from outside). Going from a laboratory demonstration to a engineered technology can consume a great deal of resources - design is one thing, but actual manufacturing with many previously non-existent associated technologies (for which tools and materials and technique have to be co-developed) is whole 'nuther thing. At least there was a number of years upto the time of the Minervas Den events, instead of some of the absurdly compressed timelines we see in Infinite:BS. It is possible that the technology's development had been in progress before the start of the Civil War (Brain Boost fed 'garage' hobbyists...) - Those Announced Ads in Minervas Den (this is in BS2 times when its rather unlikely many customers are left). They sound like someone is trying to pretend everything in the City is still all fine, and all the computers are kept running. (Wahl wants to keep control and may pretend everything is routine to the staff...) I'm not sure how the Minervas Den population manages to stay supplied or to what extent, if they have been long 'cut off from the rest of Rapture'. You do find all those 'staff' Splicers wandering around the place (and like elsewhere - this IS 7 years after Ryan died, when things in Rapture really fell apart, and you would run out of canned food pretty quick). In the MMORPG, Ryans Faction would have kept them supplied in return for keeping whats left of the city automation working, and for computer use for other projects (and the City's eventual restoration). - The 60 foot long wrecked barge (or half of one) lying outside near the broken Viaduct (which Sigma was walking along when it 'went Boom!') probably was not there back in BS1 days. It is a threat to nearby structures, and probably would have been salvaged in more normal times. It has been moved aside on this map a bit as it was close to blocking the path of that same Viaduct just past the T-intersection that no leads to the 'Another Tall Building' to the South West (which we see in the outside views). - That flooded building interior section (we initial make our way through) with the blasted out walls sure has alot of ocean sediment accumulated in it. Very odd, with it being at a higher elevation than the outside seabed. It probably would have looked more interesting/eerie to have it have nice clear floors -- except being flooded with water and with all the computer wreckage strewn about. There does seem to be alot of coral/sponge growth on things out in the water (adhering to Viaduct girders and building sides). That is a bit too much growth for a few mere decades (46-67) of time. Maybe it is all the pollution from Rapture (which does accelerate growth of bacteria in the water which many other organisms feed on). We can't simply blame everything on some 'ADAM' glowing biomass effect... - Strange that there were, what are obviously, big data cables out in the Ocean, when it would have been easy (and logical) for them to all be kept INSIDE the buildings you play through (for ease of maintenance, etc...) Ditto for the big pipes. But it IS a big theme for this level, and they needed something other than the usual brown/grey-rock-with-glowey-coral-and-sea-plant foreground you see out most windows. --- --- Amusing things : An amusing thing is : in the first part of the building underwater you enter, the glowing/blinking lights and moving needles on the gauges are still moving on the flooded/wrecked (and shorted out) electronic banks and other equipment. (They just reused the same assets used inside which are animated with those lights). - Seeing the Computer Tape Drives with those vertical lines down their lower center. I wonder if the game authors even know what a Vacuum Column is. - Someone in Minerva's Den sure liked Doc Hollcroft's Cure-All, evidenced by the number of bottles laying around. Apparently, it really didn't have that much ADAM in it, but maybe it could be spiked with some SeaSlug-squeezins. There happen to be a convenient number of Slugs around the place. It is possibly a good mixer with Vodka ... - In McClendon's part of the building, there are many bottles of booze. They (the game writers) imply McClendon had become a drunkard after his strangely contrived Robotic Little Sisters project failure. But what if those robots ran on alcohol-based Fuel Cells, and all the booze was the way they would be conveniently powered ? (No matter how decrepit the location in Rapture, the available Alcohol supply doesn't seem to have suffered.) "So a Big Daddy, A Robotic Little Sister and McClendon go into a bar ...." "Caution Watch Your Step" signs seem luminescent, probably painted with Bioluminescent paint (with built in battery to power OR alcohol-based fuel cells). All the fancy (nice game asset) blinking/chase-light signs may have been one of McClendon's other popular products. That huge overhead crane in the Robotic Workshop... What do they need to move with that thing ?? (Actually it is simply an excuse for that path blockage 'move aside' lever activation). Perhaps McClendon WAS planning to build some GIANT Robotic Little Sister (which didn't NEED a Big Daddy to accompany it ...) -- If only Sinclair had been able to mention that idea to him earlier. Robotic Little Sisters - don't their parts look kinda on the small side ?? And it would have been imaginative to see some projects like a Robo-Sister with a Mini-Turret in place of its head, or one with 6 legs, just to show that McClendon was trying to figure out what to use all those prematurely-made Robotic-LS parts for. - Big globs of rock stuck up on various external building walls (out in the sea), with various glowing coral (or whatever). Obviously reused assets, meant originally to be placed on/embed in the ocean floor. Unstable/unreliable rock is not something you 'work around' or 'integrate' into building structures. Cutting and moving huge amounts of rock in Rapture was easy. - I noticed that Cyclone Traps (whatever they actually are) can be placed THROUGH windows (through interior windows, but not ones out into the sea). The Ion-Laser does NOT go through the same interior windows for some reason (Laser = Light, so should go through glass...). - An amusing activity - Splicer skeet shooting using the Speargun, The Telekinesis Plasmid, and a dead Splicer (I used a Spider Splicer). The Programming room with its two-decker floor and high ceiling and barrel-vaulted skylight window was nice and roomy enough to give you a chance to fire before the corpse fell to the ground. --- --- --- Missed Minervas Moment : Might have been creepy in Minervas Den to have some of the Mechanical Little Sisters walking around and attempting to retrieve ADAM from various inhabitants (and from machines and each other - and badly ... They hadn't exactly been perfected yet, and the circuits of some of them perhaps have gotten a bit unstable.) Having them sneak up on you might've been interesting. --- --- --- --- --- . . .